Grace College "Thinking Inside the Box"

BREAKING: The semester may have come to an end a week ago, but the leadership of Grace College isn't taking a break when it comes to innovating higher education. From the men who "reimagined" the typical college semester, Aaron Crabtree and Jim Swanson are now in the final discussions with provost Bill Katip and president Manahan to establish a new class to be added to the Grace "core".

It is no secret that the board game, "Settlers of Catan" (pronounced Kuh-tahn) is a large part of campus life at Grace. This board game ranks high among conservative homeschool Christian families (right behind Dutch Blitz), which explains the popularity at Grace. Settlers of Catan is a popular event at open dorms, with numerous relationships forming because of the game. 

According to Aaron Crabtree, director of student life, and "Elite Catan player", this game could soon be a requirement for all students. Crabtree, who has seen the positive learning outcomes from this game believes this could be an additional hands on learning experience. 

According to Crabtree, "This game is perfect in so many ways. It's great because of all the lessons that can be learned. We play it in our resident life huddles because it provides great training for our RA's. In no other game do you learn to collaborate with others, compromise, and even manage conflict.

Pictured above: Settlers of Catan

Crabtree sees this game as offering transferable academic and life skills to any major. "For those majoring in psychology there are great ways to break apart every decision and analyze opponents. For the education majors it teaches students to effectively teach the rules of the game to those who have not been privileged to play. For the business students it applies real economic theories in a hands on experience. For the criminal justice majors...well, let's be honest, not even Catan can help them."

Grace is also considering reimplementing the Health Life styles class, and possibly adding the game "twister", as a new way for students to earn healthy lifestyle points. The popular interactive game "Operation" is also being considered as a  cost-effective training tool for all nursing students.